Unfair SSDI Repayment: Social Security Gives 30 Days to Repay $40,000 After 2-Year Delay
A Texas woman is speaking out after the Social Security Administration (SSA) unexpectedly demanded she repay $40,000 in benefits, a move she believes was unjust.
The woman, from Richardson, Texas, has been receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) since 2011 due to severe bipolar disorder, chronic migraines, and depression. At just 24 years old, she began receiving SSDI, but her situation took a turn when she started working full-time in 2015. She was informed that she had been overpaid by $12,000, but the SSA didn’t notify her about the overpayment until two years later.
During that time, she stopped working for a period, unable to earn enough to cover the overpayment. The SSA eventually deducted the $12,000 from her benefits over the course of three years. However, in 2019, she received a shocking notice from the SSA demanding that she repay more than $40,000 within 30 days. As a result, her SSDI benefits were stopped entirely.
For the next two years, she worked as a full-time essential worker delivering food, despite medical advice to avoid stressful situations. She eventually quit her job due to the strain on her mental health, becoming unemployed for the last two and a half years. Despite requesting reconsiderations and waiting for over a year, she was reinstated and received two and a half years of back pay.
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Just when she thought the ordeal was over, the SSA sent another letter, this time demanding she repay over $49,000 within 30 days, or her SSDI benefits would be stopped again.
This situation isn’t unique to this woman. Millions of Americans have faced similar demands from the SSA to repay overpaid benefits. An investigation by Cox Media Group and KFF Health News found that the SSA recovered $4.9 billion in overpayments in the 2024 fiscal year and has over $10 billion in repayments scheduled. The SSA recovers these funds by reducing future benefits, intercepting tax refunds, or garnishing wages.
A poll revealed that one in four Social Security recipients had been overpaid at some point, and many struggle to repay the large sums that the SSA demands, even for errors made years earlier. These repayment demands can cause serious financial and emotional distress for those already facing hardships.
In one notable case, an 84-year-old woman had to return to work at Dollar Tree after her Social Security payments were slashed by $300,000. In another instance, an elderly couple faced panic when their income was drastically reduced due to a $84,000 overpayment bill from the SSA.
For many Americans, these experiences highlight the critical need for reforms in the Social Security system to prevent such burdensome and often unfair repayment demands.
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